all over again in the united states senate? the ticked off vitriol against chuck hagel, what is it about? is it for show? is it about something hagel said in the cloakroom? is it the unfairness of vietnam itself, that some went and some didn't? is it about johnson's inability to win that war or end it? what burns so deeply in john mccain these days? it seems to excite those who knew nothing about vietnam but want to replay it. we dig into the deep well of resentment burning in john mccain's patriotic heart. a resentment not against the north vietnamese who imprisoned and tortured him all those years, not against george w. bush and his political henchmen who tried to stain mccain's reputation back in 2000, but against a guy who fought against fear and rallied against wounds just like he did in the same army of america's long nightmare in vietnam, chuck hagel. a nightmare, by the way, whose flashbacks must haunt still the mind and heart of john sidney mccain. i'm joined by david corn and joy reid, both msnbc contributors. both of you, sir and lady, are younger than me, but i'm younge

matthews picks things up right now. >>> the war on chuck hagel. let's play "hardball." ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. the breaking news. senate republicans have successfully blocked a vote on chuck hagel. republicans have thrown out so many different reasons for this it's hard to know why they're opposing the man becoming secretary of defense. it's hard to keep up with all their arguments. it's because hagel hasn't accounted for every penny he's made and every single word of every single speech he's ever given. it's because of what he said about israel and iran, maybe, but it's also because of the white house's response to benghazi, perhaps, something obviously, but that was nothing to do with chuck hagel who wasn't in the government at that time. well, today republican threats to take the unprecedented step of blocking a presidential cabinet appointment came to fruition, if you will. democrats moved forward with a procedural vote to end debate and pave the way for a final up and down vote. then it failed. it failed to get the

. >>> later in the show, is chuck hagel's nomination going down in flames? it's definitely frozen for now. hagel has yet to turn over the information of who his foreign funding sources were after he left the u.s. senate. that could kill him. we'll have the latest. and please don't forget, free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity. that includes lower spending and limited government. i'm larry kudlow. we'll be right back. ♪ get ready for a lot more of that new-plane smell. we're building the youngest, most modern fleet among the largest us airlines to ensure that you are more comfortable and connected than ever. we are becoming a new american. all right that's a fifth-floor probleok.. not in my house! ha ha ha! ha ha ha! no no no! not today! ha ha ha! ha ha ha! jimmy how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? happier than dikembe mutumbo blocking a shot. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or mor . welcome back. we'll take a quick look at the stock market. we bring in cnbc's courtney reagan to give us a rundown. >> re

. partisanship is also, jeff, locking them into a fight over senator hagel, chuck hagel, the president's nominee for the secretary of defense. the republicans have effectively filibustered him. what is going on here? >> what is really going to is a relitigation of what happens when a member of a party speaks out against his own party. of course, we're talking about the iraq war. chuck hagel, former republican senator from nebraska, was asking the sharpest, hardest questions about the iraq war, throughout its duration and he, classed with his old friend, john mccain, and he's paying a price. at the end of the day, he'll probably be colyirmed but he has to wait another -- until the week after next to when the senators return to washington to see if he can be confirmed so i think it's an embarrassment to the president. that's what they were trying to do in some case. but enough republicans have said that they're going to vote for him ultimately but you have to wonder, is this really going to weaken senator hagel as a possible defense secretary. all the defense ministers from aro

boiling hatred of the american right poured over today in hearings on chuck hagel's nomination to be secretary of defense. hatred, pure and simple. from the mouths of john mccain and lindsey graham as they slashed away at war hero hagel. badgering the witness is too nice a description. the hawks swirled like buzzards sweeping down, pecking and pulling at the skin of a former colleague who dared to say this country's been too ready to enter wars the american people quickly wish we'd never gotten into. what's with this hatred now centered in the american sunbelt? what do we make of this poll that shows two out of three texas republicans now want our president impeached? why the cussedness, why the range war, why the hatred of anyone who dares to stand with obama? why can't politics be a matter of belief and honest disagreement, not hatred? why the sick little intramurals we saw today? we begin with senator jeanne shaheen of new hampshire. i want you to watch this back-and-forth between john mccain and the witness today, chuck hagel. let's take a look. >> were you correct or incorrec

>>> thanks so much for watching. chris matthews and "hardball" is next. >>> hagel's in. let's play "hardball." ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews back in washington. let me start tonight with this. we can usually tell when a political party has gone off the deep end. republicans did it with goldwater, democrats with mcgovern, fdr did it when he tried to pack the supreme court. republicans did it when they impeached bill clinton. so let's talk about this grabbed standing hue loo hooping bonanza of bs the republicans have thrown at chuck hagel. look at the list of gop senators who voted today again to continue the filibuster against the president's nominee for secretary of defense. check these names. barrasso and enzip of wyoming. cornyn and cruise of texas, crapo and rich of idaho, paul and mcconnell of kentucky. boozman of arkansas, coats of indiana, fisher of nebraska, grassley of iowa, heller of nevada, hoeven of north dakota, imhoff of oklahoma. eye sayson of georgia, johnson, wisconsin. >>> kirk of illinois. moran of kansas. portman. roberts of rubio florida. toomey of pe

in the senate. but president obama's nominee for defense secretary, chuck hagel, he does have majority support in the senate. what happened today is that a minority of that body, the republicans, decided that they were going to block him anyway. never happened before. they filibustered a cabinet nomination. in the past over the years there have been a couple of token efforts at maybe doing this in the past, that got a handful of votes, didn't actually slow down or stop anything. but the minority actually blocking the nomination, that is a whole new thing. this is a fresh hell in american politics. and that is why before today even republican senators said it would be nuts to do this. before today these senators, these republicans, for example, all said, yeah, listen, i might be opposed to chuck hagel for defense, i might vote no on his nomination, but i'm not going to blow up 220-something years of precedent and filibuster the guy. i'm not going to block there being a vote on him. we've never done that before. republican senators john mccain, ray blunt, roger wicker, lindsey g

that judgment to history. >> chuck hagel and the battle for the pentagon. >> the good news is, for the first time in many years, republicans and democrats seem ready to tackle this problem together. >> the immigration problem. has somebody been reading exit polls? >> too many children are dying. too many children. >> also, the fight over -- over guns. >> law-abiding gun owners will not accept blame for the acts of violence or deranged criminals. >> the word on hillary in 2016. will she or won't she? >> i have no plans to run. >> thursday was not a good day for chuck hagel, president obama's choice to be his next offensive material. his old pal and fellow vietnam veteran john mccain jumped all over him for opposing the search --the surge in iraq. >> were you correct or not to say that the surge would be the month dangerous foreign policy blunder since vietnam? correct or incorrect? yes or no? are you going to answer the question? the question is, where you're right or wrong? that is a pretty straightforward question. i would like for you to answer whether you were right or wrong, an

of mccarthyism and this weird unconnectedness attacking chuck hagel, for example, because no one will give us info or anyone info about the benghazi situation even though hagel wasn't even in the government when benghazi happened. sick stuff. and it seems to be growing in inverse proportion to obama's popularity. the better he looks the worse these characters inhofe, cruz, mccain and lindsey graham are determined to look. did you notice the smile on john boehner's face sitting up there behind the president during the state of the union? if you did, you're imagining things. so afraid of the hard hating right of republicans these days of every stripe even boehner's scared to death of looking like he might like something barack obama had so say. to do that is to risk political death in these days. let's go at it. our guests are joy reid of the grio and michael steele, former chafer of the republican national committee. both are msnbc analysts and good ones. let's take a look at this. is this delay on the hagel vote about playing for time hoping new information comes out about them? "the

, that holds true. what happened here is that hagel's performance at his hearing and some of the questions that have come up, some of the unanswered questions, have dragged that out. there are two factions of republicans who have slowed this down. a group focused solely on hagel wanting more information and that includes the new texas senator ted cruz who has been particularly critical of hagel in raising questions about his ties to foreign groups that might have provided him some salary during the years sips he left the senate. that's been very harsh questioning. on the other hand, there was a small faction of mccain, graham, and ayotte, who wanted more information about benghazi. i just spoke to them, and they said they believe that taking the stand was very effective. they got a letter from the white house that provided them more information. they got testimony from secretary panetta and the joint chiefs chair dempsey, and they believe that added to what the public knows about benghazi and was the right way to go about this. when brennan comes up to be cia director expect anot

show for you today. i think we're going to have some fun. we've got hagel on lockdown, the republicans filibustering chuck hagel. >> i'm going to hit you and keep hitting you absolutely. you're fought going to get away without answering basic questions. >> like how much do you love israel, do you love it as much as i do. i'm in a republican primary in south carolina, that's why i keep hitting you. i know, i though. they're saying this is not techy a filibuster. really? >> we've got a conservative journalist in favor of of fracking on the show he tonight. >> these people are campaigning against fracking for natural gas. i'm a journalist and wanted to find out if they were telling the truth. what could possibly go wrong? excuse me, excuse me. >> do you think it's appropriate? >> we're watching him up against the the sierra club. come on. top of the morning to you. then bill ny the science guy talking about whether an asteroid is going to wipe us out. >> bill nye the science guy. >> the end of the earth? how's that for fun? don't worry we're not all going to die but, it is, wh

hagel to be confirmed for secretary of defense, until the white house gives us an accounting. did the president ever pick you want pope and call anyone from the libyan government to help these folks? what did the president do? we know he talked to the israeli prime minister from 8:00 to 9:00 on september 11 about a dust-up of a democratic platform and the fact he didn't meet the prime minister of israel when he came to new york to visit. but that's not related to libya. what did he do that night? that's not unfair. the families need to know. the american people need to know. >> schieffer: i'm not sure i understand. what do you plan to do if they don't give you an answer? are you going to put a hold on these nominations? >> yes, " why i'm going to ask my colleagues, can just like they did with john golpin, joe biden said no confirmation without information. when secretary clinton said she had a clear-eyed assessment of the threat in libya that turned out not to be true. want department of defense knew of the cable saying they couldn't defend the consulate. the secretary of state di

chuck hagel and about the benghazi terror attack. joining me now one of the senators leading the charge, republican lindsey graham of south carolina. you were telling me before we went on the air that you have gotten new information about chuck hagel. what is it? >> on the day of the vote there was a blog posting about a speech i think in 2007 or 2008 that chuck hagel made at rutgers university and the blogger was a supporter of senator hagel who was thinking about running for president and he put on his blog the next day 6 points of the speech question and answer is session and point six was allegedly senator hagel said that the u.s. state department was an adjunct of the israeli foreign minister's office which i think would be breathtaking if he said that to have such a view. i got a letter back from senator hagel in response to my question did you say that and do you believe that and the letter said he did not recall saying that and he disavows that statement. >> chris: is that enough for you? >> well, if in fact that is true, that would end that matter because he previously said in

still wrangling over chuck hagel's confirmation for defense secretary, but this morning harry reid does in the have the 60 votes to overcome a republican filibuster. he needs five republican votes but so far he only has two, mike johanns of nebraska and thad cochrane of mississippi. so he took his colleagues to task in his own soft-spoken way. >> it's tragic that they've decided to filibuster this qualified nominee. it is really unfortunate. >> michael: you know, reid is of course not totally off the hook. he didn't push filibuster reform through earlier this year even though it looked like he had the chance to do so. but the ludicrous part of this whole thing is the reason why republicans are giving for opposing hagel is bengahzi. that this was a cover up after the ambassador was killed. they're alleging that chuck hagel was involved. not only is that a stretch but chuck hagel oversee something like this. they dignified the response. after both lindsey graham and john mccain said they were largely satisfied according to the hill, but they still wanted to push the hagueel vote back. in

probably one of the very first second-determine nominations that president obama announced. chuck hagel ended up not being in brussels today. he has not become the new defense secretary yet because republicans in the senate have filibustered his nomination. a cabinet nomination has never, ever in the history of the united states been filibustered before. but these republicans in this congress and our time decided that they would do this unprecedented thing to chuck hagel. one of the major items on next week's news calendar is that the republicans are expected to finally relent and allow chuck hagel to be confirmed. but jane mayer published something at the new yorker today that made headlines everywhere today because she turned up the way republicans have been operating in washington at the time they have been trying to stop him. to be clear, even with the unprecedented filibuster, everybody knows that chuck hagel is going to be confirmed as defense secretary. democrats have a majority in the senate. hagel has the support of every single democrat in the senate and he has the support of

war all over again in the united states senate. the have it tree troll against chuck hagel. is it about lyndon johnson's inability to win that war or end it? what is it that burns so deeply in john mccain today? for some reason he wants to play it again and again in iraq and afterno afghanistan and again in iran. we look at the resentment burning in john mccain's heart. it's not against george w. bush and his political henchmen who tried to stay mccain's reputation in 2000 but a guy who fear and rallied against wounds just like he did. chuck hagel, a nightmare, by the way, whose flashbacks must haunt still the heart still of john sydney mccain. both are msnbc analysts. both of you, sir, and lady, are younger than me, but i must tell you i'm absolutely convinced we're watching a flashback. watch this. he did a long angry windup before he launched into his first so-called question which was really an indictment. it included putdowns as well as references to vietnam. let's listen. >> in january of 2007 in a rather bizarre exchange with secretary rice in the foreign relations committe

one republican vote short of ending the 39-day trial of chuck hagel. four republicans, senators thad cochran, susan collins, mike johanns and lisa murkowski broke ranks to join the democrats to vote for ending the debate over hagel and hold a vote on his confirmation. that left harry reid with just 59 of the 60 votes needed to move on to confirmation marking the first ever successful filibuster of a cabinet nominee. because of the coming senate recess, the next chance to confirm hagel will be the last week of february. in the meantime, republicans continued to find new reasons to justify they are obstruction. senator john mccain's latest gripe is personal. >> there's a lot of ill will towards senator hagel because when he was republican, he attacked president bush mercilessly. at one point said he was the worst president since herbert hoover, said that the surge was the worst blunder since the vietnam war, which is nonsense. and was very amti his own party and his own people. people don't forget that. >> people also don't forget that years after hagel's republican herecy, john mccane

came close to being the president of the united states. senator kerry as well as senator chuck hagel, both served honorably in vietnam and in combat while dick cheney made sure that he got five different deferments to avoid fighting a war, vietnam, that he loved supporting. so let's take a look at the cheney legacy and see how it stacks up to the president's so-called second rate team. we've got an expert, howard fineman is editorial director of the "huffington post," and joan walsh is editor-at-large of salon. both are msnbc political analysts. dick cheney says the president's national security team is second rate. that's rich coming from the man who did more than anyone to sell the u.s. on a completely unnecessary war. take a look. >> we know with absolute certainty he is enriching uranium. we believe he has reconstituted nuclear weapons. i agree we will be greeted as liberators. we learn there was a relationship between iraq and al qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s, that it involved training, for example, on bw and cw, that al qaeda sent personnel to

paul on tea party politics and nor lindsey graham has vowed to hold up the hagel nomination. chris asked him about that in an exclusive interview. i'm shannon bream. captioned by closed captioning services, inc. >> chris: i'm chris wallace. senate republican ares block the president's choice to run the pentagon. as gop senators demand more answers about the benghazi terror attack, white house charges they are playing politics with national security. we talk with the man leading the call for more information, senator lindsey graham. his tee party response to the state of the union speech was critical to both the president and the gop. we will ask senator rand paul what he thinks of the obama agenda as well as republican policy. also, it is less than two weeks until big automatic spending cuts kick in. we will ask the sunday panel will congress will reach a deal before the sequester deadline. and outraged our power player of the week helps the senate make history by keeping track of history. all right now on "fox news sunday." >> chris: and hello again from fox news in washington. se

going to talk about the key stone pipeline. we'll follow the money. >> john mccain chuck hagel lots of drama. >> comedy before the superbowl weekend and nobody found it funny. >> the can we say is were you right or wrong? that's a pretty straight forward question. i would like the answer whether you were right or wrong and then you are free to elaborate. >> michael hastings, you have something for us about football, don't you? >> yes in advance of superbowl weekend, no one found it funny. >> what about gay guys, any approach you? >> i don't do the gay guys. >> are there any on the 49ers? >> lots of drama between chuck hagel and john mccain. and it's go time. [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> all right. the big story of the day today has to do with the excel key stone pipeline. it's been coming up again and again. the obama administration has refused to sign the permits to allow for the complete construction of the pipeline. for those of you who don't know what it is, it's a $7 billion project that would pump more than 800,000-barrels of toxic tar sands crude each day from alberta through america

but watched chuck hagel's confirmation hearing you probably thought the defense secretary was in charge of israel or the surge. but he is not. he is in charge of much more important things, chuck hagel, coming up. lock. lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. you name it...i've hooked it. but there's one... one that's always eluded me. thought i had it in the blizzard of '93. ha! never even came close. sometimes, i actually think it's mocking me. [ engine revs ] what?! quattro!!!!! ♪ the words are going this way-there's no way. oh, the lights came on. isn't technology supposed to make life easier? at chase we're pioneering innovations that make banking simple. deposit a check with a photo. pay someone with an email. and bank seamlessly with our award-winning mobile app. take a step forward... and chase what matters. >>> the obama administration, health care policy making sure that pretty much ev

, thank you for joining us. >>> if you are not around here but watched chuck hagel's confirmation hearing you probably thought the defense secretary was in charge of israel or the surge. but he is not. he is in charge of much more important things, chuck hagel, coming up. dead battery, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geico's emergency roadside assistance is there 24/7. oh dear, i got a flat tire. hmmm. uh... yeah, can you find a take where it's a bit more dramatic on that last line, yeah? yeah i got it right here. someone help me!!! i have a flat tire!!! well it's good... good for me. what do you think? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. olaf gets great rewards for his small business! pizza! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! helium delivery. put it on my spark card! [ pop! ] [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve great rewards! awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchas

here but watched chuck hagel's confirmation hearing you probably thought the defense secretary was in charge of israel or the surge. but he is not. he is in charge of much more important things, chuck hagel, coming up. lock. lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. you name it...i've hooked it. but there's one... one that's always eluded me. thought i had it in the blizzard of '93. ha! never even came close. sometimes, i actually think it's mocking me. [ engine revs ] what?! quattro!!!!! ♪ >>> the obama administration, health care policy making sure that pretty much every woman has access to contraception. but what happens if you work for a religious organization? then it gets a little more complicated. we will explain the new rules next. hey, it's sara. i'm going pro. i've been using crest pro-health for a week. my dentist said it was gonna help transform my mouth. [ male announcer ] go pro. for a

stay off the rolls. >>> the ays have it but not the eyes, chuck hagel gets clubbed on senate republicans on israel, iran, iraq, and more. the white house is still confident they'll have enough votes to make it -- to get hagel to the pentagon, but let's be honest, it's been ugly so far. >>> and the country says good-bye to one of its most outspoken and color mayors, ed koch, likes to say how am i doing, history would say he's done a pretty good job of leading new york into a new era. >>> good morning from washington, it's friday, february 1st, 2013. let's get to the first read of the morning. i'll get to the jobs report in a minute, but i want to get to hagel. i want to start there. no doubt chuck hagel had a rough outing before the armed services committee, the question is whether hostility to hagel's nomination breaks down so completely along partisan lines. that he's still able to survive. there's clearly a lot of republican opposition to hagel, some of it may be personal. the white house for now is chalking up the eight painful hours to political theatrics and believe thes

republican colleagues would leave the nation without -- >> and that hagel hostage. the filibuster is a valentine's day spoiler for departing secretary leon panetta. >> the second best valentine's present would be to allow sylvia and i to get the hell out of town. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell life in washington. the national rifle association has now launched a counter offensive against the president's emotional appeal at the state of the union. to put an end to gun violence. in a column published yesterday on a conservative web blog wayne lapierre from the nra announced a four-year communications and resistance movement, his words, to block what he calls a siege from the enemies of the second amendment. in washington to hear the president's appeal we'll be talking to mark kelly moments from now, but, first, to that breaking muse out of south africa rsh olympic sprinter oscar pistorius made sporting history by becoming the first track athlete double amputee to compete in the games, but today the blade runner as he is known, is charged with murder after his girlfriend was fatally sho

nominations of chuck hagel for defense secretary and also john brennan for head of the cia in order to get the white house to give answers. >> you're about to make some news here, i think. you are saying that you are going to block the nominations. you're going to block them from coming to a vote until you get an answer to this. >> yes. >> reporter: on cbs's "face the nation" sunday, senator lindsey graham acknowledged he would use a rule that allows a senator to put a hold on presidential nominees. he hopes by delaying the confirmation of chuck hagel and john brennan he can force the white house to answer questions about how much president obama knew about the september 11th attack in benghazi. >> i want to know what our president did. what did he do as commander in chief. did he ever pick up the phone and call anybody? i think this is stuff that the country needs to know. >> reporter: four americans including ambassador chris stevens were killed in an assault on the u.s. consulate. republicans have accused the administration of misleading the public about the attack. >> this white ho